"Pieces of the Island"-An English Translation

Guillermo Farinas

This Wednesday, May 8th 2013, marks 2 years since human rights activist Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died after a beating at the hands of the political police in the city of Santa Clara, Villa Clara province, in Cuba.

Soto was beat by agents on May 5th 2011 in the mentioned city for the simple fact that he was out on the street carrying out a completely peaceful demonstration against the regime. He was urgently rushed to a hospital where he died three days later, on Mother’s Day.

He was 46 years old and was a proud father.

Members of Cuba’s internal opposition have considered Soto Garcia to be one of the many martyrs in the fight for freedom in the country, and have even used his name to create new pro-democracy groups.

“My friend Juan Wilfredo Soto (#JWS) was assassinated 2 years ago in Cuba for thinking differently”, wrote blogger and Baptist Pastor Mario Felix Lleonart on his Twitter account (@maritovoz), “God will do justice very soon for the assasination of Juan Wilfredo Soto, Oswaldo Paya, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Laura Pollan and many others”, signaled another message.

Meanwhile, dissident GuillermoFariñas wrote on his Twitter account (@chirusa32) that on the second anniversary of Soto’s death, 16 activists were impeded by political police forces to enter the cemetery where the remains of Soto Garcia lay in Santa Clara. Another 4 were arrested.

Friends of the dissident lovingly referred to Juan Wilfredo Soto as “The Student“.

The last group of Cuban dissidents who were brutally attacked and arrested by the political police this past 31st of October in the Arnaldo Milian Castro Hospital of Santa Clara were released this 3rd of November.

Activist Jorge Luis Antunez explains that the purpose of such a congregation of more than 15 dissidents in the hospital was to demonstrate solidarity with hunger strikers Alcides Rodriguez and Rolando Ferrer who had been urgently rushed to the hospital after 29 days of their ongoing protest. Also, the dissidents wanted to accompany Idania Yanez, wife of Alcides Rodriguez.

“It was a completely peaceful atmosphere among the dissidents, we were there in solidarity“, recounts Antunez, continuing, “After a while, my wife Yris and I head upstairs to the B-Medical Room, Bed 11 to keep Alcides some company. It was then that we received a call from Idania from the lobby. She was telling us that government agents were entering the building- they were political police and Rapid Response Brigade agents, sent to arrest dissidents“. The dissident from Placetas shares that he did not think that the officials would go to the point of breaking into the intensive care center where there were many gravely-ill patients- men, women, old and young. However, the agents paid no attention to this.

The police officers broke into the room and “brutally arrested us without telling us a thing, savagely beating us at the same time”. The couple was then dragged throughout all of the hospital to the outside and shoved inside police vehicles. “While they were dragging us“, narrates Antunez, “we could hear screams of patients and those accompanying them, protesting against the situation“.

Both Yris and Antunez were taken, while being beat, to the Police Unit of Caibarien.

Idania Yanez, Damaris Moya, Yanisbel Valido, Rene Quiroga, and others were also victims of physical aggression and an arbitrary arrest. The Assembly of the Resistance, an umbrella group of dissident organizations in and out of Cuba, published a testimony, through the Cuban Democratic Directorate’s website, of the horrors Damaris Moya went through. In the testimony, Moya denounced that both she and Idania Yanez were dragged from a police vehicle to the police center known as “UPOC”. Moya explains that in the case of Yanez, she was taken into the Unit by various agents who were “punching her on her abdomen, on her head, and all over her body“.

The report continues, “I was able to break free from a female agent who held a tight grip on me and I ran towards Idania and Yanisbel. Yanisbel was being choked, she had turned very red. They were continuously punching Idania. It was then that a guard from Guamajal- a very tall and corpulent woman- hit me on my head. I fell hard against the prison bars. At that moment, my hands and feet began to grow numb. My feet were swollen and I couldn’t move. They left me on the floor and they once again pounded Idania, punching her and dragging her into a jail cell“.

The officials then turned to Damaris and began to kick her while on the floor. She couldn’t get up. They sat her on a chair and were screaming at her to get up. “A doctor came and opened my eyes and then told me I didn’t have anything. They continued the same thing. They screamed at me to get up. They grabbed my hair and hurled me to the floor, chair and all. I was once again dragged, by the hair as usual, but only one of them was grabbing my hair, the other two were kicking me at the same time. They threw me into a cell where there was a red ant pile and I was just left there after they tore off my clothes and left me in my underwear“.

According to Moya, the functionary who ordered so much violence against these women was Yuniel Monteagudo Reina, a State Security agent. The dissident also recounts that Idania was savagely beaten on the face and on her eyes, which caused her to swell up. Yanez was also bleeding from her back. She had a long scratch which Moya speculates could have not been done with a hand or nails, but instead with some sort of object.

Idania Yanez was taken to the State Security Barracks of Santa Clara while Damaris was taken to the Unit of Encrucijadas, where she carried out a protest, refusing to eat any food or drink any liquids, despite the constant threats and insults. She was released Wednesday night.

While all these dissidents were being tortured and arrested, the hunger striker Rolando Ferrer was kicked out of the hospital while Alcides Rodriguez remained alone. For that reason, on Tuesday November 1st Guillermo Farinas, a veteran in his own right with hunger strikes, head out to visit his brother in struggle at the hospital. The political police did not allow Farinas to enter the hospital and they also beat him aggressively. He remained detained until the morning hours of November 3rd.

During that same afternoon of the 3rd, all the dissidents who were still arrested during this operation were released, except for Idania. Information about her whereabouts and condition was very scarce which led to various activists- Damaris Moya and Antunez among others- to declare that if by 5 PM Idania had not arrived to her house, they would carry out a protest in the streets of Santa Clara all the way to the detention center in which she was being held. Shortly thereafter it was reported that Yanez was released but her family took her directly to the hospital due to the fact that she had suffered countless severe physical blows and was in a very bad state of health. According to her mother, who denounced the violations her daughter suffered, the last few times Idania has been detained she has ended up in the hospital afterward because of all the blows she has suffered.

“I am very concerned about our beloved sister in struggle, Idania Yanez, because she has been severely injured“, declared Antunez- a worry he shares with all his other brothers and sisters in struggle, “We are all holding the Castro dictatorship accountable in regards to what may happen to Idania“.

The situation of the activists arrested on Monday, October 31st has become increasingly worrisome, as their whereabouts are unknown, as far as Antunez, Yris Perez, Idania Yanez, and Damaris Moya. All that is known of this group is that they were severely beaten. Their are no official reports of what prison or detention center they were taken to. Antunez’s sister, Berta Antunez- a tireless human rights activist in exile- has been running the Twitter of Antunez since his arrest. She has not heard of her brother or fellow dissidents, either.

Guillermo Farinas

Guillermo Farinas, popularly known for his lengthy hunger strike in 2010, was also arrested. This occurred yesterday when he decided to visit hunger striker Alcides Rodriguez, upon knowing that he was alone (since all the other activists were taken by force from the hospital). While various reports have confirmed that he is being held in the 5th Police Unit of Santa Clara, there is no word on his health, which has been weak since his strike.

A patriotic date for Cubans- the 10th of October, when independence fighter Carlos Cespedes granted freedom to black slaves and initiated the Ten Years’ War for independence, in an act known as ‘the Cry of Yara’- was celebrated 143 years later by dissidents on the island carrying out non-violent protests, and also with repression on behalf governmental forces.

According to former political prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), an organization headed by him and other dissidents, carried out a peaceful protest through the streets of Palmarito de Cauto in correlation with the historic date and in demand for the respect of the inalienable rights of all Cubans. “A number of activists took to the street with signs which read ‘Down with Fidel’, ‘Fix our streets’, ‘Milk for our children’, and ‘Internet for all’, and shouted these same slogans along with others and also sang the national anthem“, explained the distinguished dissident. The protesters were able to see that the majority of the neighbors stared from their windows or doors in a sign of support, while the only ones who tried to stop them were 7 members of the government’s Rapid Response Brigade and a lady who is an active Popular Power delegate and Communist Party member, who hurled rocks at the dissidents from her house.

Upon noticing the absence of excessive violence towards the demonstrators on behalf of the locals, officials from the Political Police, Revolutionary Police, and State Security began to arrive to the city. “Those agents began to surround the entire town, and one could clearly hear how they felt rage upon not seeing a massive display of aggression against the activists. The officials were asking themselves and everyone around how this had been possible“, while the superiors scolded the local militants, declaring that such behavior was “not acceptable“.

According to Ferrer Garcia, this position assumed by everyday citizens is becoming more and more common every time, with less or no neighbors participating in acts of mob repudiation or other forms of violence. “It is true that many people still feel fear and therefore do not protest publicly, but we are also witnessing that more and more show sympathy to us and even tell us we are doing a very brave thing“. A recent example of this occurred minutes after the march, when “various youths began to shout the same slogans which they had heard dissidents shout during the peaceful march, and these people are not even openly opposition members, yet they confronted the Rapid Response Brigade. This has been frequently happening, despite the fact that the authorities try to make it seem otherwise, using the tactic of blackmailing and utilizing workers of certain sectors such as commerce or food, telling them to pretend to be upset and to shout offensive slogans at us. If they fail to do so, they lose their jobs“, denounces Ferrer.

Although initially there was no excessive violence, just a few moments after the officials showed up armed with sticks and rods. Various agents used these weapons of repression against two female dissidents who had participated in the march- Oria Casanova and Tania Banderas, both who are mute. Casanova and Banderas were victims of a severe beat down.

In order to try and impede such reports to be brought quickly to light, Cuban authorities blocked the phone lines of Jose Daniel and his wife, Belkis Cantillo since the prior day, Sunday October 9th, when other brutal acts had occurred against dissidents on the island. In one case, 13 Ladies in White were beaten while they attempted to assist mass at church. The uniformed government soldiers persecuted those activists which were reporting the events and capturing the aggressions on film. They were trying to confiscate their cameras. One of the victims of the physical violence was also Belkis Cantillo, who suffered various kicks to the stomach.

Other acts of repression in the island

In the Eastern city of Las Tunas there was also repression while activists attempted to celebrate the historic date. From her Twitter account, the exiled daughter of activist Ramon Velazquez Toranzo, Rufina Velazquez, denounced that her father had been arrested along with other opposition members. He was detained when he tried to step out of his house. Political police officials stopped him and shoved him in a police vehicle, keeping him there for a few hours. Other dissidents belonging to the Christian Liberation Movement suffered the same fate.

In Placetas, Jorge Luis Garcia ‘Antunez’, recounted that he was on his way home after visiting recently released activist Sara Marta Fonseca when he noticed that countless government officials were following him. Antunez lives knowing that these watchdogs are keeping a close vigilance on him, as they have set up a circle around his neighborhood, taking note of his activities as well as those of his wife and other dissident friends. The 10th of October was no exception. “The uniformed officials were keeping a close vigilance in their attempt to impede anyone from going in our out of my house“, denounced the dissident.

Meanwhile, in Santa Clara Guillermo Farinas and the independent journalist Carlos Baluerdy Oregon were detained while they tried to get to the local Leoncio Vidal Park to carry out an act of solidarity with activists of the Central Opposition Coalition who have maintained a hunger strike in demand for the immediate end to violence against resistance members. Both were released during afternoon hours. In the province of Matanzas, State Security carried out a brutal beating against members of the Independent Alternative Option Movement , according to a note published on Babalu Blog which was written by former political prisoner Miguel Sigler Amaya, now exiled in Miami. The activists were planning to march all the way to the local cemetery, paying tribute to deceased martyrs on that patriotic day.

Various distinguished members of the Cuban resistance have put together a new document in which they call on the unification of Cuba’s opposition. Among the representatives of these “principles for a new nation” are Oscar Elias Biscet, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, Guillermo Farinas, Librado Linares, Guido Sigler Amaya, and others. More than just a document, it is a clear sign that the Cuban opposition could unite to demand the same thing for all: absolute freedom.

Cuba was once a prosperous nation that counted on democratic institutions and a flourishing economy when it was compared to the rest of the world. The communist dictatorship destroyed not only its economic foundations, but also its moral structures. Now, as a new generation of Cubans, we are proposing the dismantling of this despicable system and the construction of a new nation founded on the recognized universal principles of peace, liberty, and the wellbeing of its people.

FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY

The Cuban communist regime is a military dictatorship that has maintained power for more than fifty years through the use of terror, intimidation, lies, disinformation, demagoguery, political opportunism, and violence against its adversaries and even its own people.

The Castro hierarchy—first under the sole direction of Fidel Castro and later his brother Raul—has not only assumed political power, it has also extended its control to all spheres of national life, from the social to the economic. Everything is done to ensure the Cuban nation is a highly militarized society where no one is allowed to breathe even the most minimal vestige of liberty.

The Castro tyranny’s policy can be described without fear of exaggeration as one of genocide, which seeks the total extermination of its adversaries. Its actions speak for themselves:

—It has carried out hundreds of extrajudicial executions of its opponents and thousands more after trials without due process.

—It has imprisoned and arbitrarily repressed hundreds of thousands.

—It has violated individual rights enumerated in its own constitution.

—It has illegally confiscated without compensation hundreds of thousands of private properties.

—It has persecuted, imprisoned, and forcibly exiled hundreds of religious individuals of different beliefs.

—It has illegally abolished the Democratic Constitution of 1940 and has imposed the monstrous Communist Constitution of 1976.

—It has dismantled all the democratic institutions created by the nation during more than fifty years, and has violated the population’s most elemental civil and human rights.

—It has committed barbaric acts such as the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat where dozens of men, women, and children were murdered.

—It executed three young men only for attempting to leave the country, and it criminally shot down two airplanes over international waters carrying four human rights activists on a mission to save lives in the Florida Straits.

—It has imprisoned dozens of peaceful opposition members, among them several intellectuals, journalists, and independent librarians during the Black Spring of 2003.

—It has used inhumane and degrading torture and cruelty against defenseless political prisoners in the country’s prisons.

—It has carried out massive arrests, beatings, and even assassinated those who opposed them, including women and children.

This has been the mind blowing panorama and the injustices suffered by the people of Cuba who have struggled, almost always alone, since 1959. To finally put an end to this lamentable state, at this moment a strong, non-violent civil movement is surging, proposing the reestablishment of civil society and winning back the rights and liberties of our people.

Democracy is not a dream, but a tangible reality that the Cuban people can obtain through non-violent civil struggle supported by ideas and procedures meticulously formulated by outstanding contemporary academics. The same give peaceful weapons to the population for the resistance against tyrannies, both current and future, and for the defense of their liberties.

This method utilizes psychological, social, economic, and political weapons to liberate the citizens from submission and obedience, allowing them to suppress the dictatorial government’s sources of power.

In other words, the non-violent civic struggle is a massive defiance of the regime, and it assumes the unity of democratic forces and those forces with the people.

The Fundamental Principles of this Declaration are:

Work towards a change to a democratic system based on a true State of Rights, and with a modern economy that is developed and highly efficient.

Achieve a transition based on constitutional norms that leads to the reestablishment of our traditional democratic institutions and all universally recognized liberties.

Strengthen the struggle for the respect of human rights, and achieve a society free of political prisoners.

Respect the fundamental rights established by the International Pact for Civil and Political Rights, as well as the right to life and the freedom of thought.

Encourage and strengthen unity among Cubans, regardless of where they live, based on fraternity and ethics as well as their individual relationships and the struggle we have before us.

Advocate and strengthen among the citizenry the method of non-violent civic struggle.

Create a free Cuba without ties to our recent past by the disintegration of the regime, and the eradication from the minds of our people the complacent attitude that has been predominate these past 52 years of tyranny.

Increase international solidarity with the Cuban people and support for its just struggle for the reestablishment of democracy.

Reaffirm that the Cuban people deserve a dignified life, where they can enjoy the liberties and the good things that complete happiness offers. This will only become reality when we all incorporate ourselves into the struggle for democratic change.

The signers of this declaration consider it a first step towards a definitive consolidation of the unity that will make possible an integral project for a new nation.

Look to the Cuban people with the objective of carrying out a nation project that represents the most longed for aspirations of its heroes and martyrs throughout its history.

In this quest we are inspired by our faith in a Higher Being, our love for our beloved Cuba, and deep and unequivocal patriotism; in addition, absolute respect for our flag, for our national anthem, for other patriotic symbols, and for the heroes and martyrs of our struggle for the liberty and independence of our country throughout the history.

On Thursday, September 15th, the National ‘Boitel and Zapata Live’ March for Freedom arrived at the central cities of Santa Clara and Placetas. The outcome of the demonstration was very similar to the outcomes of the other marches which took place in the Eastern region of the country- Palma Soriano, Bayamo, Baracoa. The dissidents who participated in this march awoke that Thursday with their homes surrounded by the combined forces of State Security and the National Revolutionary Police.

Among the dissidents who took part were former prisoner of conscience Angel Moya Acosta (who is also one of the main coordinators of the National March), Guillermo Farinas, and Licet Zamora. Both Farinas and Moya offered declarations to various media outlets, detailing that they were rapidly impeded by the forces of the the Cuban government as they tried to carry out the march after an extensive operation of vigilance around their homes. They were then taken to detainment units. Farinas was released hours after, while Moya was kept for an additional day. Moya had already been arrested a few days prior to that as he was also involved with carrying out the non-violent march in the Eastern city of Palma Soriano, along the also former prisoner of conscience, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia.

In Placetas, activists from the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil Rights also took to the street to participate in the March. The demonstrators were Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera, Donaida Perez Paceiro, Idania Yanez Contreras, Damaris Moya, Yanisbel Valido, and Leidis Garcia, among others. The group of women suffered the same outcome which all other activists who have participated in this historic march have suffered: they were beaten and arrested by uniformed officials.

“The arrest occurred at around 10:15 in the morning,” affirmed Yris Tamara, “we were all taken to the Police Unit of Placetas“. Once there, in those pestilent cells, the activists explain that they decided to protest through non-cooperation. “I did not accept water at any moment“, despite the fact that she suffers various health ailments, among them, “a chronic asthma and low blood sugar levels“.

Due to the combination of various health issues, Yris Tamara suffered a sharp and nearly unsupportable pain in her kidneys while she was detained. Meanwhile, Damaris Moya was brutally beaten by her jailers, according to a testimony of Licet Zamora, who was detained along with these women and released before. Also, Donaida Perez Paceiro suffered a savage beating a few months ago in the city of Gibara (also for demonstrating peacefully) and still has sharp pains and wounds on her body. Paceiro’s pain worsened in the very cold, small, and uncomfortable jail cells.

Jorge Luis Garcia “Antunez”, husband of Yris Tamara, was able to surpass a police barrier around his home, along with the young dissident Duniel Garcia Ruiz. Both activists wanted to join the March, but were not able to do so, seeing that the women had all been arrested already. When they protested this and tried to direct themselves to the police unit, they were both detained and deported back home. Afterward, Antunez was able to make it to the unit, bringing along some medicines with him for Yris’ complications. But such a harmless act was met with aggression on behalf of the government officials. “The Chiefs of Police in Placetas did not want to allow my husband to leave me my medicines, they were saying that they were not medicines, but instead food“, explains Yris. The officials she mentions are specifically Ivan Gonzalez and one nicknamed “The Weightlifter”. The latter is responsible for the beatings of many defenseless women in Cuba on countless occasions, among them Yris Tamara and other pro-freedom activists.

After 72 hours (3 days) all the activists from Placetas were released, on Sunday the 18th. They had clear physical marks, but were wholly intact in terms of their spirits of resistance. “I want to thank everyone who was concerned of our situation and raised their voices for us“, expressed Aguilera, adding an important message, “The March has not ended, it will continue. And we, those same women, those same men which were arrested on the 15th will continue marching, because the streets belong to the people, and we are part of the Cuban people“.

In response to the ‘Boitel and Zapata Live’ National March for Cuban Freedom, the Cuban authorities have taken every possible measure in their attempt to deter a people who demand rights and freedom for an entire nation.

One of these waves of repression occurred Friday, September 9th in Eastern Cuba- specifically in Palma Soriano, a region which, according to former prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, has been “totally militarized” as product of a rising level of activism, which increased after the home of dissident Marino Antomarchi, full of dissidents, was attacked with tear gas.

In the midst of this strict vigilance, Angel Moya Acosta, also former prisoner of conscience and coordinator for the National Boitel Zapata March, was able to find a way to get to Palma Soriano. Along with Jose Daniel Ferrer and other dissidents like Tania Montoya, Raudel Avila, Francisco Macias, and Raumel Vinajera, they all noticed that political police agents were surrounding homes of dissidents in order to impede free movement and the March. Jose Daniel Ferrer recounts that, “the agents wanted to force us to stay in our homes, but one of the agreements we reached for the march was to refuse our houses as prison cells“, continuing, “so we stepped out, and an agent dressed in civilian clothes told us it was not permitted. Upon us not accepting this, the agent grew very nervous, as their were no uniformed officers nearby to detain us. However, they quickly arrived and grabbed us by the arms and shoved us in police cars“.

This “hunt for dissidents“, as Jose Daniel describes it, was headed by Major Dorkis. “Dorkis led this hunt throughout the entire city, arresting various dissidents like Francisco Castellano, Tania Montoya, and many others“, explains the former prisoner.

The participants of the march were taken arrested to diverse police units, while some were dropped off 70-90 kilometers from Palma Soriano, leaving them in desolate roads and therefore making it impossible for them to return in time to participate in the march. Ferrer Garcia narrates his experience in the dungeons for 3 days:

“In the detainment unit we suffered physical abuses at the hands of police officers and agents of the Ministry“. First came the violent search of the dissident’s belongings and bodies. “One of the agents stomped on my feet, I still have the marks to prove it. Angel Moya was thrown on the concrete floor and pushed down, searching him by force“. Tania Montoya was not only searched but also was victim of a form of sexual abuse. “More than 7 female police officers forcibly stripped her clothes off and searched her so thoroughly that they even stuck one of their fingers in her vagina“, denounced Ferrer.

Afterward, Ferrer was thrown in a “pestilent dungeon, which was 4 squared meters and which already had 6 men inside. It was terribly hot“. In addition, “there was very little water and we were given horrible nutrition“. Ferrer was able to firsthand witness the abuses committed against the common prisoners being held in that center, although it was not something alien to him, considering that he had just been released from serving 7 years behind the bars since the Black Spring of 2003. One of the worst abuses against the prisoners, according to Garcia, is medical negligence, as well as the conditions in which they have to live (sealed off cells) and sleep (on the concrete floor). In his own case, he also had to sleep on the cement floor for 3 days, with the same clothes he had on the day of his arrest and without access to hygiene products.

“In some sort of way, I had lots of space in comparison with other brothers in cause and common prisoners who had to share a small cell with 12 others, amid all that heat, filth, and poor diet“, he explains.

Jose Daniel Ferrer and Angel Moya Acosta were released on the third day of their arrest. In Moya’s case, he has already been intercepted after that detainment. As of now, the exact details are not yet available but it was reported on September 15th that Moya, along with other dissidents, had been arrested again in Santa Clara, as he tried to coordinate the same march. Some other names of those arrested alongside him are Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera, Idania Yanez, Damaris Moya, and Guillermo Farinas.